# Auxiliary-Field Quantum Monte Carlo Simulations of Neutron Matter in Chiral Effective Field Theory [CL]

We present variational Monte Carlo calculations of the neutron matter equation of state using chiral nuclear interactions. The ground-state wavefunction of neutron matter, containing non-perturbative many-body correlations, is obtained from auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo simulations of up to about 340 neutrons interacting on a 10^3 discretized lattice. The evolution Hamiltonian is chosen to be attractive and spin-independent in order to avoid the fermion sign problem and is constructed to best reproduce broad features of chiral nuclear forces. This is facilitated by choosing a lattice spacing of 1.5 fm, corresponding to a momentum-space cutoff of 414 MeV/c, a resolution scale at which strongly repulsive features of nuclear two-body forces are suppressed. Differences between the evolution potential and the full chiral nuclear interaction are then treated perturbatively. Our results for the equation of state are compared to previous quantum Monte Carlo simulations which employed chiral two-body forces at next-to-next-to-leading order (N2LO). In addition we include the effects of three-body forces at N2LO, which provide important repulsion at densities higher than 0.02 fm^{-3}, as well as two-body forces at N3LO.

G. Wlazlowski, J. Holt, S. Moroz, et. al.
Tue, 18 Mar 14
46/62